Epidemiologia da infecção hospitalar

The Health Care Associated Infection (HCAI) is a consequence of a medical intervention on the patient, whether diagnostic, therapeutic or prophylactic. For its study, the epidemiological concepts are essentials to describe its natural history, since the detection, to the knowledge of the etiology, to the comprehension of its distribution and to the determination of the methods to its prevention or control. On the epidemiological chain, the infection variables to consider are the microorganisms and its reservoirs and/or sources, the host and the route of transfer of microorganism or route of infection. With the knowledge and study of these variables it is possible to implement epidemiological surveillance programs with the main objective of knowing in each moment the reality concerning the HCAI, with direct implications on the definition of preventive measures, whether primary, secondary or tertiary.